CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 22 June 1937, Page 6

CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE

POSITION IN INDIA

BROADCAST BY VICEROY

[British Official Wireless]

(Received 22nd June, 1.18 p.m.) RUGBY, 21st June.

Lord Linlithgow in his broadcast, made an eloquent appeal for confidence in the intentions embodied in the Government of India Act, and emphasried the extreme inexpediency of interrupting even temporarily the rythm and momentum of a continuous and progressive political reform, of which India was the scene. He declared that the greatest triumph of Britain in India would be to help the establishment of those principles of representation and responsible government which were a special contribution towards the secular progress of mankind. The Viceroy’s message sympathetically appeals to Congress to co-operate in. the working or the constitution to enable India “to take the shortest road to fuller political life which so many of you greatly desire.” He lengthily discusses the technicalities of the Governors’ position, including the resignation or dismissal of Ministers in the event of a Governor using mandatory powers. He emphasises that r.o Governor is lightly going to destroy for the sake of a legalistic interpretation an Act which might be the fruitful co-op-c ration of years. He welcomes Gandhi’s suggestion that the severance between a Governor and Minister is only an essential in an event of major importance, and adds that if the deadlock continues and parliamentary government is suspended in a number of provinces it might be beyond anyone’s power to reverse the circumstances which must then supervene.